Air Force Staff Sgt. Travis Barkley, left, and Senior Airman Ramon De Jesus, replace a valve in an F-35's cooling system on Tuesday as maintenance on the grounded jets continued Tuesday.

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Commanders in the F-35 Lightning training program at Eglin Air Force Base expect permission to return the grounded jets to flight soon.

The Defense Department suspended flight operations of the next-generation Lockheed Martin fighter on Friday after a crack in an F-35 engine blade was discovered during a maintenance inspection at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

But Air Force officers in the F-35 training program at Eglin were heartened Tuesday by news reports from Australia, where their boss, Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, said the jets could be back in the air within two weeks. ...